Hung Shao Pork

You won’t believe how easy this is and how wonderful it tastes. You don’t have to eat the skin on the pork, but its gelatinous properties are very important to the flavour of the finished dish.

Serves 2

This recipe is adapted from Delia Smith’s Winter Collection

Ingredients

450g belly pork, including the skin (buy it as a whole piece)

4 tablespoons dark soy sauce

1 level dessertspoon finely chopped fresh ginger

1 Whole Star Anise

5cm piece Cinnamon Stick, broken into shreds

1 teaspoon caster sugar

3 tablespoons Shaoxing Rice Wine

For the steamed greens:

100g Tenderstem broccoli tips

75g leeks

2 salad onions

100g savoy cabbage

Salt

Equipment

You will also need a small-sized flameproof casserole with a lid, and a steamer.

Method

First of all prepare the pork. What you need to do is cut it into 2.5cm cubes, making quite sure that each piece still has the skin attached.

Now arrange the pieces of pork, skin side down, in the flameproof casserole and sprinkle them with the soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of water. Next add the chopped ginger, sprinkling it all around, popping in the star anise and the cinnamon as well.

Now cover the casserole, turn on the heat and as soon as the juices start to simmer, turn the heat to a low setting and cook the pork gently for 45 minutes. After that turn the pieces of pork over, sprinkle in the sugar and the shaoxing rice wine, then cover again and continue to cook very slowly for a further 45 minutes turning it over once or twice more during that time.

Towards the end of the cooking time, put a pan of water on to boil. Then prep the vegetables if you are not using the prepared pack.

Cut the broccoli, just below the flowery top and split any larger tips into two, then cut the stem into thin diagonal slices. The cabbage needs to be de-stalked and sliced into ribbons about 1cm by 8cm and the leek halved lengthways, cleaned and cut into diagonal slices. Then slice the white part of the spring onion and cut the tender green part into matchsticks.

Now toss the vegetables together with a little salt and steam over the boiling water for about 4–5 minutes (depending on how you like them) until the thickest part to the broccoli stalk feels tender when a skewer is inserted.

Serve the steamed vegetables on top of steamed fragrant rice and the pork with its cooking juices spooned over.